Cadbury rejected Kraft's $16.73 billion bid and people familiar with the situation said Mr. Stitzer, at 57 a year older than Kraft's Ms. Rosenfeld, doesn't want Cadbury to be gobbled up by the larger food company.

Mr. Stitzer feels that Cadbury doesn't need Kraft, those people said, and that Kraft's offer doesn't recognize Cadbury's value. To sweeten a potential deal for Cadbury, these people said, Mr. Stitzer thinks Kraft would have to put substantially more money on the table. In an interview, Ms. Rosenfeld said she feels Kraft made a "full and fair" offer.

The bid shows how Ms. Rosenfeld is intent on making Kraft a bigger, more profitable company through acquisitions and investments in its major brands. Her strategy differs from that of her predecessor, Roger K. Deromedi, who was more of a cost-cutter.

After becoming CEO in 2006, Ms. Rosenfeld encouraged executives to use the phrase "Let's get growing" as a rallying cry. The Cadbury bid "shows that she is not sitting still, and is not content with what they have already achieved," said Erin Swanson, an analyst with Morningstar Inc. in Chicago.

The offer is "a pretty bold move" at a time when other CEOs are waiting for more signs of economic recovery before they pursue deals, said a former Kraft executive who knows Ms. Rosenfeld. "It does show that she is a risk taker, and she's putting her money where her mouth is," this person said.

Ms. Rosenfeld's three-year turnaround plan for Kraft recently has begun to bear fruit. The company last month said its second-quarter profit topped Wall Street's forecasts, and the company raised its earnings forecast for the full year.

Cadbury CEO Todd Stitzer
Brian Harkin for The Wall Street Journal

She has sold lackluster brands, including Post cereals and Veryfine juices, in an effort to widen profit margins. She also has moved to revitalize key brands. For instance, the company restored the original amount of cheese in Kraft's flagship macaroni-and-cheese product, reversing a decision aimed at saving money.

Ms. Rosenfeld made clear early in her tenure that the company would examine acquisition opportunities in international markets with strong growth prospects. Kraft bought Groupe Danone SA's global biscuits business for $7 billion in 2007, giving it brands with operations in more than 20 countries.

Ms. Rosenfeld also has decentralized the company's management, putting more decisions in the hands of brand managers. "That has been phenomenal for morale," said the former Kraft executive.

Kraft tapped Ms. Rosenfeld as CEO in mid-2006. It hired her away from PepsiCo Inc.'s Frito-Lay North America unit, where she became CEO in 2004 after more than 20 years at Kraft.

For Cadbury's Mr. Stitzer, the takeover bid from Kraft marks a fresh turn in an up-and-down, six-year tenure as CEO.

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He initially was considered an industry shooting star after Cadbury's 2002 acquisition of the Trident, Halls and Dentyne brands from pharmaceuticals group Pfizer Inc. But many observers branded him a pushover for dropping his long-standing opposition to splitting off Cadbury's soft drinks unit in 2008. More recently, his star has been rising as he has managed to improve Cadbury's revenue, profit and market share in key markets amid the economic downturn.

Mr. Stitzer has spent 26 years at Cadbury, becoming CEO in 2003. An American, he joined Cadbury after several years working as a mergers-and-acquisitions lawyer in New York.

But having made his mark at the company by managing the acquisition of the Pfizer brands, he struggled in 2005 and 2006 as Cadbury was faced with a British salmonella scare, a Nigerian accounting scandal, a rise in commodity costs and other problems.

"He went from hero to zero," said Andrew Wood, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co in New York. "His standing really fell in that period."

Last year, Mr. Stitzer decided to spin off Cadbury's U.S. soft-drinks division under pressure from activist shareholder Nelson Peltz. At the same time, he continued to pursue an ambitious turnaround plan for Cadbury. The project, announced in 2007, was aimed at boosting the 185-year-old firm's profitability by cutting costs, raising prices and simplifying its management structure.

As with Ms. Rosenfeld's turnaround plan, Mr. Stitzer's efforts are beginning to show results. In the first half of this year, Cadbury net profit nearly tripled, to &pound;313 million ($513.3 million), from &pound;113 million a year earlier.

Analysts said Mr. Stitzer's success in improving Cadbury's sales and margins -- along with his decision to let go of the beverage business -- whetted Kraft's appetite.